by Angel Edwards

Created on: February 15, 2011   Last Updated: February 17, 2011

Cleaning your house has not always been as expensive as it is these days. But, with adverts, newspapers and the media in general bombarding us with evermore terrifying facts about the evils of bacteria, it is no wonder that so many of us are sucked in by products advertising techniques. Detol claims to be 99.9% effective in killing "bad bacteria", but actually, having all these chemicals floating around our houses, surely we could be doing ourselves more harm than good, and that's without even considering the cost. A certain amount of bacteria is good for us, it helps to build up immunity. So actually, going back to the cheap homemade cleaning methods of the past may be beneficial to our health as well as our pockets. Here are my top cleaning solutions which can really save you money on expensive products (people survived before there were all these chemicals, and so can we!)

1. To polish your cutlery: fill a container with boiling hot water. Dip the cutlery in the water but be careful not to scold yourself. Then take a dry cloth and rub each piece of cutlery until it shines. It's quite simple, but it really does work. Also, to prevent cutlery from needing to be polished, dry each piece of cutlery individually each time after washing as this prevents smears from appearing on them which happens when the water dries naturally.

2. To remove red wine stains. Pour soda water on the stain and dab with a towel (can be a paper towel) until all the colour has gone. You really need to do this one as soon as you can, but nevertheless, it is possibly the best method I have discovered.

3. To remove Lime Scale from taps. Soak a piece of cotton towel in white wine vinegar, then cling-film this to the tap for at least an hour. When you remove the cling-filmed cotton towel, buff the tap until shiny. The Lime Scale should come straight off.

4. To clean windows. Put 25% vinegar in to a bowl with 75% water and mix. Then using an old (but clean) towel, immerse it in water and scrub the windows. Taking some scrunched up newspaper buff the windows. If there are any streaks remaining get a dry cloth and simply rub them away. Simple, easy, and very cheap to do.

5. To remove odours from your microwave. If your microwave smells a bit funny (and let’s face it, some food does stink) simply wipe it out using your normal washing up liquid, dry it with a dry cloth. Then pour some water and a little lemon juice into a microwavable bowl, place in the microwave and switch on for 20 seconds. If it still smells repeat. That should get rid of the smell which seems to infiltrate all the other food you've been cooking leaving it smelling fresh and ready for your next quick meal.

6. To clean the oven and hob. Put baking soda on a damp sponge. This makes grease easy to clean up and works almost as well as the expensive cleaning formulas. (It also works on sinks, baths and showers)

7. Bleach. You can make your own cheaper bleach by buying a big bottle of thick bleach and pouring an inch into the bottom of an empty spray bottle, then filling it up with water. It works just the same as normal spray bleach products, but is far cheaper.

Good luck testing out these methods. You can always adapt and change them to ways which suit you. There is no correct way to clean. But keeping your house clean is important, so do it your way.

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